[en] This document takes stock on the wind energy installations and capacity in Europe. More than 10000 MW were installed in the world in 2005, bringing worldwide wind power capacity up to 57837 MW. The european market is still growing but North American and Asian markets get the strongest growing rates. The decrease in the german and spanish markets did not prevent the EU countries from reaching their joint objectives of 40000 MW five years ahead of schedule. (A.L.B.)

No abstract available

No abstract available

[en] Total-body irradiation (TBI) induces an increase in levels of granulocytes and cortisol in blood. To explore the underlying mechanisms, we studied 26 patients who had TBI prior to bone marrow transplantation. Our findings suggest that only a high dose of TBI (10 Gy) was capable of activating the hypothalamopituitary area since corticotropin-releasing factor and blood adrenocorticotropic hormone levels increased at the end of the TBI. There was a concomitant increase in the levels of interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor in blood, suggesting that these cytokines might activate the hypothalamo-pituitary adrenal axis. Interleukin 1 was not detected. Since vascular injury is a common after radiation treatment, it is possible that interleukin 6 was secreted by endothelial cells. The exact mechanisms of the production of cyctokines induced by ionizing radiation remain to be determined. 25 refs., 1 fig

[en] Previous studies have shown that exposure of mice to DMBA resulted in suppression of both humoral and cell-mediated immunity. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the action of DMBA on the second messenger cascade linked to the T-cell antigen receptor (i.e intracellular calcium, phospholipid turnover). Human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) were isolated from heparinized blood by Ficoll-Hypaque gradient centrifugation, cultured for one hour with DMBA (0-40 μM) and the activation signal was then added (phytohemagglutinin (PHA) or monoclonal antibody OKT3). Proliferation, as measured by ³H-Thymidine incorporation was significantly decreased by up to 50% following PHA activation and 61% following OKT3 activation. DMBA-mediated suppression of proliferation was dose-related over the range of concentrations employed. Intracellular calcium level was measured by flow cytometry using the fluorescent probe indo-1. PHA-induced intracellular calcium augmentation was significantly inhibited following exposure of PBL with DMBA. This effect was noted with all DMBA concentrations tested (45% inhibition at 5μM, 71% at 10 μM, 75% at 20 μM and 90% at 40 μM). Extracellular calcium uptake of human PBL was also inhibited following DMBA exposure as assessed by the calcium ionophore A23187. These results demonstrated that DMBA-induced immunosuppression could be mediated through the signaling pathway linked to the T-cell antigen receptor of human lymphocytes

[en] Highlights: • Gene transcript analysis benefits the cardiac embryonic stem cell test (ESTc). • Morpholines and piperidines stimulated Msmo1 related to cholesterol synthesis. • Cell type specific differentiation effects of exposure were visible on day 10. • These additional readouts gave mechanistic insight in ESTc's biological domain. The cardiac embryonic stem cell test (ESTc) is an in vitro embryotoxicity screen which uses cardiomyocyte formation as the main differentiation route. Studies are ongoing into whether an improved specification of the biological domain can broaden the applicability of the test, e.g. to discriminate between structurally similar chemicals by measuring expression of dedicated gene transcript biomarkers. We explored this with two chemical classes: morpholines (tridemorph; fenpropimorph) and piperidines (fenpropidin; spiroxamine). These compounds cause embryotoxicity in rat such as cleft palate. This malformation can be linked to interference with retinoic acid balance, neural crest (NC) cell migration, or cholesterol biosynthesis. Also neural differentiation within the ESTc was explored in relation to these compounds. Gene transcript expression of related biomarkers were measured at low and high concentrations on differentiation day 4 (DD4) and DD10. All compounds showed stimulating effects on the cholesterol biosynthesis related marker Msmo1 after 24 h exposure and tridemorph showed inhibition of Cyp26a1 which codes for one of the enzymes that metabolises retinoic acid. A longer exposure duration enhanced expression levels for differentiation markers for cardiomyocytes (Nkx2–5; Myh6) and neural cells (Tubb3) on DD10. This readout gave additional mechanistic insight which enabled previously unavailable in vitro discrimination between the compounds, showing the practical utility of specifying the biological domain of the ESTc.

[en] ABSTRACT: The dose–response characterization of endocrine mediated toxicity is an on-going debate which is controversial when exploring the nature of the dose–response curve and the effect at the low-end of the curve. To contribute to this debate we have assessed the effects of a wide range of dose levels of the antiandrogen flutamide (FLU) on 7-week male Wistar rats. FLU was administered by oral gavage at doses of 0, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 mg/kg/day for 28 days. To evaluate the reproducibility, the study was performed 3 times. The molecular initiating event (MIE; AR antagonism), the key events (LH increase, Leydig cell proliferation and hyperplasia increases) and associated events involved in the mode of action (MOA) of FLU induced testicular toxicity were characterized to address the dose response concordance. Results showed no effects at low doses (< 0.1 mg/kg/day) for the different key events studied. The histopathological changes (Leydig cell hyperplasia) observed at 1 and 10 mg/kg/day were associated with an increase in steroidogenesis gene expression in the testis from 1 mg/kg/day, as well as an increase in testosterone blood level at 10 mg/kg/day. Each key event dose–response was in good concordance with the MOA of FLU on the testis. From the available results, only monotonic dose–response curves were observed for the MIE, the key events, associated events and in effects observed in other sex related tissues. All the results, so far, show that the reference endocrine disruptor FLU induces threshold effects in a standard 28-day toxicity study on adult male rats. - Highlights: • Dose–response characterization of endocrine mediated toxicity is an on-going debate. • A wide range of dose levels of flutamide was evaluated on young adult male rats. • Flutamide induces threshold effects using on standard and molecular tools.

[en] Prevention of possible noxious effects in relation with the exposure to one or several chemical, physical or biological agents present in our domestic or professional environment is one of today's big public health stakes. Another stake is the better assessment of the risks linked with the use of health-care products. The efficacy and predictiveness of toxicology studies are directly related to the combination of alternate complementary methods and animal experiments (obtaining data from different species and with different models: in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo). Despite important efforts, the toxicological evaluation remains perfectible. The proceedings of this 2010 congress of the French Society of cell pharmaco-toxicology deal with recent advances, both scientific and technological, in 'predictive toxicology'. Four main topics are approached: cell and organ models, 'omics', in silico modeling, and new technologies (imaging, cell ships, high-speed processing). Among the different presentations, 3 abstracts present some recent advances in imaging techniques applied to toxicology studies. These are: 1 - first uses in toxicology of TOF-SIMS mass spectroscopy imaging (O. Laprevote, Paris-Descartes Univ. (FR)); 2 - Small animal imaging, a tool for predictive toxicology (A. Le Pape, CNRS Orleans (FR)); 3 - uranium localization at cell level using SIMS imaging technique (C. Rouas et al., IRSN Fontenay-aux-Roses (FR)). (J.S.)